Staff Reporter | Memories still fresh on the bitter fight between government and villagers over Maleme Ranch in Matobo, government appears to be brewing another land war in the area.
Villagers are reportedly grouping up to resist the “Maleme way” a move by government to take over land being used by villagers to expand an ARDA irrigation farm recently taken over by Trek Petroleum.
Government is reportedly in the process of evicting villagers from four villages surrounding the huge Antelope Estate to expand the territory of the estate to some 1962 boundaries.
According to village head Mr Phanuel Ndlovu, ARDA and Government gave the estate to Trek Petroleum who engaged a South African investor Midnight Feast Properties to put funds into the expansion programme without consulting the investors.
Ndlovu claims that this is the third time that the villagers around the estate are being evicted from the land since the sixties.
The four villages affected are Mahetshe, Matankeni, Silawa and Zweyamba. The villagers have vowed not to go down without a fight in defending their land.
Last year villagers from Maleme Village in the same district heavily fought against government’s take over of Maleme Ranch until Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko intervened to block the take over giving villagers victory over state machinery.